teach me the art of war

I hope everyone who celebrates [...] at this time of year has had a lovely [...] and that all others are having a lovely end to the year.

It has been a crazy *coughmumble* number of weeks since I've managed a post. Giftsmas yesterday was lovely: I have new board games! Books! Fountain pen inks! And (joy of joys) a ceramic burr grinder from the GC, who also seemed pretty happy with the things I got for him. These included two Adrian Tchaikovsky novels--signed!--which he had no idea he was getting. (This took some work--and a slight chance of missing an international flight--and the payoff was more than worth it.)

We decamped mid-afternoon for Geek BBQer DM's house, where we spent the next six hours going gluttonous on Virginia ham, salmon, winter veggie dishes, cheeses, brandied fruit, panettone, several bottles of very good wine, and more baked goods than is advisable with a dozen other Geek BBQers and adjacent family and friends. It was an excellent time and still going strong when we reluctantly excused ourselves and went home, as the GC's holiday leave was cancelled second-to-last minute this year for Reasons and

I spentGiftsmas Eve morning baking, with a break to make stuffed onions for lunch. The afternoon was filled with more baking, and then dinner: Balsamic pork roast, green bean casserole, homemade stuffing, and cranberry relish. We wrapped up in time to make it to Geek BBQ to celebrate with the manager, who comped us some very, very pours (Ardbeg Hypernova, Jefferson's Reserve, and Masculine Charms Of A Hairy Highlander) and half a pound of pulled pork. And we squeezed in annual watches of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and The Fellowship of the Ring.

Tuesday saw the GC working and me baking until dinner, during which we watched Community's Comparative Religion and then headed to Geek BBQ, where we ironed out the final details for Giftsmas dinner and compared notes on the week's EO shenanigans. On Monday, we wrapped up meal planning and seasonal shopping for gifts and the rest of the week, and then I headed to that evening's Monday session. Which I love playing at, but for someone who is asleep by 7:30 more nights than not, the 8:15 start time is...rough.

Sunday was, of course, the Solstice. I'd already finished this year's Solstice read (Howl's Moving Castle) so that was taken care of early. Otherwise, we got the greenery up and I spent seven hours on the annual kitchen clean, cleaning, reorganizing, and inventorying everything in the fridge, freezer, cupboards, and shelves ahead of concentrated holiday baking. After that, we had our final D&D Homebrew 2 Campaign session of the year and it was a banger. Sooooo much plot and character development, all of it unscripted, all of it excellent. There was zero combat, I did one dice roll the entire five-hour session (there were probably fewer than five dice rolls from all the players combined) and it did not feel like anything was lacking.) This is just a phenomenal group with a phenomenal DM and I am so happy to be playing with them.

Last week's Monday Session was rescheduled to Saturday afternoon, which: A+ Would Reschedule Again. I am just so much sharper as a player when I'm *cough* awake.

Last week's Geek BBQ was our annual Whiskey White Elephant. Fully a third of the gifts this year were Scotch whiskies (up from one during the inaugural), which was great news for me. We came away with a very good (although not the best) one, with two snifters into the bargain--a nice bonus, given that we'd previously sacrificed all of ours to various PPVs we've hosted over the year. As another bonus, the two other best bottles were both claimed by good friends RI and HA, meaning we basically own all of them in common now. 😝 Our contribution was also well-received by its final recipient and the other folks who tried it, so that was nice too.

In other miscellany, we watched The American Revolution, which had more of a military (vice political/cultural) focus than I'd expected, but still did a very good job of highlighting where all the vaunted rhetoric fell very, very short in practice. We also made progress on our Geek BBQ group watches of Vinland Saga and Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition, which has been a fascinating experience given that we're about equally divided between people who remember (with varying degrees of fondness and frustration) the original Eva(s) and people who are coming to the universe for the very first time.

これで以上です。